Posts Tagged ‘grains’

I tried to IM the word ‘blerg’ on my phone to my bff earlier today and my phone corrected it to ‘blood’.

That’s a good analogy for the day.

It should have been a good day. Last night I had margaritas and pulled pork sandwiches with one of my favorite ladies…

My momma! Well, she had a margarita.

That’s hers on the left. Mine on the right is what Lulu’s calls a Texas Slush. That might be a thing? Like, a thing in places other than a bbq joint in Louisville? It’s half Tecate (that’s that bottom layer) and half frozen margarita (the top).

SO GOOD. It’s weirdly sparkly – I know it sounds unlikely, but it’s what I imagine a champagne slushie would taste like.

Then today I had my Kashi and yogurt with fresh organic strawberries ($4.99 for two pounds yo) – again in a meeting. I either need to start checking my calendar more thoroughly or start bringing a less crunchy breakfast. This picture was taken while everyone was looking at someone else, so I’d already eaten two thirds. Slowly and with the aid of much saliva.

Sorry, was that gross? That was gross. Someone tell Kashi to put ‘crunch’ in the name of their. .. oh, right.

Farro for the third lunch in a row – not terrible, but I REALLY need to remember how much longer four servings last when I’m eating them alone. I’m ready for Crockett to come home, but I’ve got a whole ‘nother work week to plan for. I should just eat celery stuffed with various things. Celery stuffed with things is fabulous. The celery above is stuffed with a Laughing Cow Queso wedge.

Oh, also? I’m still not running where the coyote puppies are, but this isn’t a terrible replacement. It’s amazing how much more picturesque something that is essentially an alley can look at dawn-ish.

Anyway. Today was blerg because BLERG.

Sometimes, as adults, we go to the doctor (like we’re supposed to) and the doctor says ‘hmmm….’ instead of ‘ok, everything looks fine, see you next year!’. That happened to me a couple of weeks ago, and today was my follow up – and instead of ‘gosh, that was silly, you’re good to go’, I essentially got another ‘hmmm’. As a responsible person who does what my doctor tells me to, I’m sure that everything will in fact be fine, but it’s still enough to take a normal day to ‘blerg’ level, you know?

What other one thing is enough to make a day blergy? I’m sure there are plenty.

I opened my home laptop just now and realized that I’d shut the lid last night while yesterday’s post was… posting. Post post. Post.

So there it is, smooshed right up against this one. Oh well.

Many exciting things happened today. For example, my coworker buddy sent me an article about how sitting all day makes you die, and then she and I rigged a standing desk out of textbooks. This is my standing desk, apparently she’d rather be comfortable than alive from 92 to 94.

I send Crockett this picture and he pointed out that there are probably $1500 worth of books under the laptop, making this an exceptionally expensive rigged desk. My bosses boss did come by and say that if I wanted a real one, they’d make it happen, but I’m going to try it out first. Honestly, I stood up for like four hours today and I feel pretty solid. It’s awesome.

…. Huh. I guess that was actually the only exciting thing that happened today.

I watered our herb garden – what up, three kinds of basil?

I watered my new lemon plant. See the teeny tiny lemons? They’re exactly the same color as the leaves right now, but I have high hopes for an eventual lovely yellow.

I did not water our hops plant, because after all the rain I’m pretty sure it’s trying to take over the world and doesn’t need help from me.

I ate breakfast.

Those yellow things are the last of the mango nectarines. Thank god, because those things were trippy.

Then I ate some baby yellow tomatoes and some roasted mushrooms and farro salad, which it turns out does not photograph any better in natural light than it did in the kitchen last night. It did keep well, though, so here you go:

Here’s my note: I used probably 10 oz of crimini mushrooms, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. I wished there had been more mushrooms, and possibly more interesting kinds, but otherwise I thought it was about perfect – however, I really like farro and didn’t need it heavily dressed. If you’re not sure how you feel about it, feel free to up the juice and oil values. Also, this does involve turning on the oven.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees (I know it’s July – save this recipe for fall if your house is too hot) and put the stock or three cups of water and your bullion on to boil. When boiling, add the farro and bring to a simmer. Set your timer for 25 minutes.

Rinse and chop or break your mushrooms into smallish bite size pieces. Spread them out on a baking sheet lined with foil and toss them with one to two teaspoons of your oil and about half a teaspoon of kosher salt. Stick them in the oven and turn it down to 350 – hopefully right now your timer says 20 minutes, give or take, but if not set one that does.

When the farro is done, try it. It should still have some bite but nothing serious – you just don’t want fluffy. Drain it. Pull the mushrooms out of the oven, and let them and the farro get down to room temperature. (Don’t rinse the farro to cool it off – if you want to speed up the cooling process, spread it out on a baking sheet). When they’re both coolish, stir them together and toss with the rest of the olive oil and the lemon juice.

Crumble (not grate) the cheese over the salad and serve at room temp.

Possible variations: Veganize it by leaving out the cheese. I suggest some nutritional yeast flakes if you’re going to do this.Herb it up.. I wanted to try it plain first, and now I’m thinking parsley, thai basil – maaaaybe thyme… something bright.Fried egg on top, anyone?